Sydney Warren Lotterby (30 November 1926 – 28 July 2020) was a British television producer and director who produced numerous

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

comedy series.

Life and career

Lotterby was born in

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

, London, to Winifred (née Warren) and Sidney Lotterby, a shop fitter, and grew up in

Edgware Edgware () is a suburban town in northwest London. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex east of the ancient Watling Street in what is now the London Borough of Barnet but it is now informally considered to cover a wider area, inc ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

. In 1941, on leaving Stag Lane school aged 14, he joined the

as a storekeeper in the electrical department at

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

, then worked in the sound control room at

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

until his national service in the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

from 1946 until 1948. After national service he returned to the BBC and became a cameraman and progressed to becoming technical manager. He joined the BBC's Entertainment Department in 1958 and in 1963, became a producer/director. Lotterby married Marcia Dos Santos in 1997. He died at his home in

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district in West London, split between the London Borough of Hounslow, London Boroughs of Hounslow and London Borough of Ealing, Ealing. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist Wi ...

on 28 July 2020, at the age of 93.

Production and direction

Television comedy series which he produced or directed included: '' As Time Goes By'', '' May to December'', ''

Last of the Summer Wine ''Last of the Summer Wine'' is a British sitcom set in Yorkshire created and written by Roy Clarke and originally broadcast by the BBC from 1973 to 2010. It premiered as an episode of ''Comedy Playhouse'' on 4 January 1973, and the first seri ...

'', ''Yes, Minister'' and ''Yes, Prime Minister'', '' Ever Decreasing Circles'', '' Brush Strokes'', '' Open All Hours'', '' The Old Boy Network'', ''

Butterflies Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

'', '' Ripping Yarns'', ''

Porridge Porridge is a food made by heating, soaking or boiling ground, crushed or chopped starchy plants, typically grain, in milk or water. It is often cooked or served with added flavourings such as sugar, honey, fruit, or syrup to make a sweet cereal ...

'', '' Going Straight'', '' Broaden Your Mind'', the final series of ''

Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em ''Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'' is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC1, created and written by Raymond Allen (scriptwriter), Raymond Allen and starring Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice. It was first broadcast in 1973 and ran for two series, inc ...

'', '' The Liver Birds'', '' Up Pompeii!'' and '' Sykes and A...''. A sketch in '' At Last The 1948 Show'' in which four exactly alike men all called Sydney Lotterby (" The Four Sydney Lotterbies") was written by

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, and Television presenter, presenter. Emerging from the Footlights, Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinbur ...

, because he liked the name. The men were played by Cleese, Marty Feldman,

Tim Brooke-Taylor Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor (17 July 194012 April 2020) was an English actor and comedian. He was best known as a member of The Goodies. Brooke-Taylor became active in performing in comedy sketches while at the University of Cambridge and beca ...

, and

Graham Chapman Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the Surreal humour, surrealist comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel (Monty Py ...

. Cleese also gave the name to the character played by Robert Lindsay in '' Fierce Creatures'' (1997).Michael Palin ''Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006

Awards

Lotterby won four

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

awards for comedy, including for ''Porridge'' (and also for a special in 1975), ''Going Straight'' (1978) and ''Yes Minister'' (1980). He was also nominated for 11 more. In 1994, Lotterby was appointed OBE.

Filmography

References

External links

* . * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lotterby, Sydney 1926 births 2020 deaths 20th-century British Army personnel BAFTA winners (people) BBC television producers British television directors Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Chiswick People from Edgware People from Paddington